Liberties; Nicotine-Stained Halo

The former Maine Senator, a candidate for knighthood in Britain and sainthood in Ireland, made a speech at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday, sharing reflections on his role in winning the longest of long shots, a peace agreement for Northern Ireland.

The press, however, has a very short attention span. The journalists were distracted from peace to bang-bang in three other ''I'' countries -- India, Indonesia and Israel. And, as usual, they were distracted by sex.

Doug Harbrecht, the press club president, read Mr. Mitchell a question from the audience: ''Since you are married to a woman 25 years younger than you, many in the audience are wondering whether you, like another famous Verner, Liipfert partner, Bob Dole, have ever used Viagra. Care to comment, please?''

''The answer is no,'' Mr. Mitchell replied, with a broad smile, ''and I've got a 6-month-old son to prove that I don't need it!''

But Mr. Mitchell was in such fine fettle over his shimmering accomplishment massaging and melding bitter rival factions in Ireland, he probably would not have lost his beatific smile no matter what oddball question he was lobbed.

The man deserves blessings. He made 100 trans-Atlantic flights to Ireland in three years, brokered a settlement on terms tolerable to two governments and eight political parties, listening and soothing even after ''everything that needed to be said had been said many times over,'' as he put it.

But in the great Washington tradition, Mr. Mitchell has been doing good and doing well.

On the dais as Mr. Mitchell's guests were his law partners at the politically connected Verner, Liipfert firm, Berl Bernhard and Harry McPherson, who are also Democratic mandarins. After Mr. Mitchell returned from his Irish triumph, Mr. Bernhard led the firm in a standing ovation at an impromptu reception for the peacemaker.

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While Mr. Mitchell and his Verner, Liipfert partners are celebrating over doing the Lord's work in Ireland, they've been doing Big Tobacco's work in Washington. While Mr. Mitchell spoke movingly in his speech about wanting to insure a safe future for the 61 babies born in Northern Ireland the same day as his son, Verner, Liipfert has been lobbying on behalf of an addiction that poses a deadly threat to American children: smoking.

The law firm earned more than $10 million in fees in 1997 from the five largest tobacco companies. Originally, Mr. Mitchell and Verner, Liipfert justified working for the tobacco industry by arguing that they were promoting the historic $368.5 billion tobacco settlement reached last June, which would have provided new funding for teen anti-smoking programs and other public health initiatives.

But now Big Tobacco has launched an aggressive, multimillion-dollar advertising and lobbying campaign to kill tobacco legislation sponsored by Senator John McCain that would extract even more money from cigarette makers to stop kids from smoking. Mr. McCain says it is ''not fun'' to see himself ripped by tobacco companies in TV and radio ads in Arizona. With Big Tobacco in a recalcitrant mode, the prospect for enacting last year's settlement seems off the radar.

And when the cigarette makers stalked away, Verner, Liipfert went with them. The industry's critics are saying that Verner, Liipfert should now be doing some soul-searching over whether it wants to stick with Big Tobacco. ''Now they should see that they are on the wrong side of the fight,'' said one anti-smoking activist. ''But it's going to be hard for these lawyers to go tobacco-free. They are in the hourly rate business.'' And $10 million is a mighty fat fee.

Mr. McCain said that the Washington lawyers and former Democratic and Republican wise men -- Bob Dole, Howard Baker and George Mitchell -- who are becoming rich on tobacco money ''really need to examine their responsibilities, they really do.''

Having taken such good care of the children of Ireland, maybe Mr. Mitchell and his law firm should now take good care of ours.

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A version of this op-ed appears in print on May 17, 1998, on Page 4004017 of the National edition with the headline: Liberties; Nicotine-Stained Halo. Today's Paper|Subscribe